ARBITRATION LAW

 Arbitration is one of alternative dispute resolution techniques and According to WIPO (2018) arbitration is probably the best known alternative to court litigation.

 Arbitration arise when a dispute or difference between two or more parties bring to an independent party to resolve the dispute. KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Party Autonomy

“Arbitration is a consensual process based the doctrine of party autonomy” (Mohammed, 2016)

 Parties can choose,

 Applicable Law of arbitration

 Place of Arbitration  Procedural Law of Arbitration  Composition of Arbitrators  Language of Arbitration KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Doctrine of Severability

The concept of separability means that the validity of the arbitration clause does not depend onthe validity of the remaining parts of the contract in which it is contained KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Doctrine of Competence- Competence

 The “competence-competence” principle allows an arbitration tribunal to rule on its

jurisdiction.

 The competence-competence principle is one of the tools to strike a right balance while allocating jurisdictional authority between an arbitral tribunal and a state court KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Exclusivity of the Arbitral Remedy

 An arbitration agreement is binding on the parties to the agreement and if proceedings are commenced before a court of law between parties to such an agreement with respect to matter covered by it, the court would not assume jurisdiction, unless the respondent fails to invoke the arbitration agreement KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Importance Of The Seat Of The Arbitration (Situs)

 Arbitration does not exist in legal vacuum

 the parties to the arbitration agreement that decide the seat of the arbitration

 The Seat of Arbitration is important because it regulates the applicable law governing the arbitration including the procedural laws

 Seat of the arbitration and Place of the arbitration is two different things. KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Conflict of Laws

 Conflict of laws also known as “Private international law”

 The conflict of laws is that part of the private law of a country which deals with cases having a foreign elements and foreign element means simply a contract with some system of law other than the law of the country When there conflicts of laws situation, rules of conflict of law use to select the applicable law to the contract and they are as follows,  Express selection of the proper law  Implied selection of the proper law  The closet and real connection KEY ASPECTS OF THE ARBITRATION

 Multi-Party Arbitration

 In a chain contract, if one party in the chain makes a claim against its contractual partner, the latter will seek to pass on liability to a third party and similarly a dispute between the building owner and main contractor could result in either party seeking to bring a sub- contractor or the architect or structural engineer into the dispute so as to pass on liability or so as to pursue an alternative remedy. When these disputes are referred to the arbitration it known as multi-party arbitration. ARBITRATION IN SRI LANKA

 The arbitration law in Sri Lanka by enacted through the Arbitration Act, No.11 of 1995

 The Sri Lankan Arbitration Act applies equivalently to the conduct of domestic arbitration proceedings as well as to international commercial arbitration.

 The Sri Lankan Arbitration Act support following concepts,

 Party autonomy,

 Minimal judicial intervention,

 Independence and impartiality of the tribunal

 Effective enforcement of awards

ARBITRATION IN SRI LANKA The main innovative features of the 1995 Act are,

 A Valid agreement for arbitration constitutes a bar to court proccedings (sction 5 of the Act)

 The Principle of Party autonomy is safeguard in appointment and determination of the number of arbitrators, the place of arbitration and the procedure to be followed in the arbitration proceedings ( section 6 (1), 7(1), and 17).

 The Arbitration awards are final (section 26) and courts have no jurisdiction to interfere in the merits of an award. The award could be set aside on very narrowly defined grounds (Section 32).

 The exclusion of appeals to the Supreme Court by the agreement of parties (Section 38) is unique provision, which is expected to make the Arbitration process less litigious and protracted.

 Provisions for the enforcement of foreign Arbitration Awards (Section 33 and 34), the ground of avoidance of the execution of a foreign Arbitration Award is modeled to similarly to the provisions in the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.